Pride, passion in S.F. QB’s hometown

A town lived and died with every moment Sunday as it watched its own Colin Kaepernick and the 49ers in the Super Bowl.

“Watching Colin, you say, ‘Please, please make it,’ ” said Kyler Weese, one of Kaepernick’s boyhood pals. “You pray he doesn’t get hurt. You want to see him succeed in everything. You want to see him do well.”

Emotions went from agony to ecstasy and then agony.

Kaepernick is from Turlock, where he excelled in football, baseball and basketball as a boy. His friendly, grounded nature, in addition to his success, has made him beloved in the San Joaquin Valley.

At Lamppost Pizza, just off Highway 99 in Turlock, the No. 1 spot in the region to watch a game, people started arriving at 9 a.m. to get a table to watch the hometown hero. It was so loud when Kaepernick ran or passed that you had to read lips to have a conversation. At other times, eerily quiet.

As the game started, Jorden Garcia, 22, wearing a No. 7 49ers jersey, Kaepernick on the back, agonized over every play, good and not so good. Garcia knew Kaepernick is high school.

“I met Colin at Pitman High, about 600 to 800 students,” Garcia said. “He was a big guy, but not as tall as now and not as buff, but he was a super nice guy. Even in high school, he was animated. He’s still who he is now, as he was at Pittman. It’s really cool for me to see. I was a nerd gamer, he was a football star, but he was friendly to me, anyway.

“I saw him in high school colors, and now I’m watching him in 49er colors at the Super Bowl. It’s awesome. You see him do these interviews on TV and he’s just like he was in high school, the same guy, really nice guy, humble.”

Everything has blown up in Turlock for the hometown hero, Garcia said. You can’t go down the street without seeing red, hats, jerseys, flags. It’s everywhere.

Kyler Weese watched the game with a personal set of memories. As a 9-year-old fourth-grader, he was one of Kaepernick’s best pals. In Kaepernick’s famous letter, in which he hoped he would play for the 49ers or the Packers, Kaepernick even notes Kyler as his friend.

“I first met Colin in third grade at Dutcher Elementary,” Weese said. “Growing up, we played sports together, football together. More than the sports involved, Colin was just a good friend. Not everything revolved around sports. He was the nicest guy, very gifted, and it was always obvious that he had the capability to make it.

“Whenever we’d go out after school and play football, he was always the quarterback, and I was usually his wide receiver. From third grade to eighth grade, we played together. Colin came to all my birthday parties. I went to his. We were just really good friends.

“We all did a letter for our time capsule. I knew he wanted to play professional sports. When I saw that letter, I was so shocked to see my name on the (‘Sunday Night Football’) game. Even though Colin and I went to different high schools and colleges, I’ve always felt that Colin was destined for success and will always be a true friend.”

Colin invited Weese and two other buddies to offseason practice, and Weese, in turn, was able to meet a lot of 49ers.

The Super Bowl, with Kaepernick as quarterback for the 49ers, packed Lamppost Pizza to capacity at 175. The place has an open feel, a 30-foot ceiling with 5,000 square feet, 10 TV screens, including the biggest screens in town, 20-foot elliptical bar, 12 beers on tap, salad bar, pizza, pasta and sandwiches. During the 49ers 17-0 run in the third quarter, it got so loud that a security guard from the parking lot poked his head in there to make sure everything was OK.

The owner, Kevin Brophy, knew Colin through his son, Kyler.

“They went to grammar and middle school together,” Brophy said. “He played youth football with him. They both played baseball. That’s when I had time to coach. We saw an awesome quarterback. He’s been a standout, in baseball, too.

“The kids hooked up for birthday parties at a young age. He was a great kid, Colin. I love him, felt good about him right from the start. We’re proud of him. The whole town followed him to Nevada and to the 49ers.”

When you walk into the restaurant, a sign on the back wall reads: “This is Kaepernick Country!! Home of the 49ers and Lamppost Pizza!!”

Marybeth Driscoll, a lifelong San Joaquin Valley resident, designed a 20-ounce “Kaepernick” mug, with a red silhouette of the “Kaepernicking” symbol. She was selling them for $20, filled.

“We made a mug like this for ourselves two weeks ago, but everybody loved it, so here it is,” she said. “I just think it is awesome that his dreams are coming true, a hope that it can happen, if you believe and work for it.

“That letter is so heart-touching, that he knew then what he truly wanted. It gives kids hope it can happen. If it happened to Colin, it can happen to them, too.”

Kaepernick has always been hard to catch, according to Keith Pace, who played against him in high school.

“We were in the same grade and he was my rival,” Pace said. “He went to Pitman, I went to Turlock, and I played against him. I played running back and corner. He was an elite quarterback. We saw that in the beginning. He beat us my junior year and senior year.

“I actually chased him. It was difficult. He was elusive, hard to get hold of him. I never actually tackled him.

“After the game, I told him, ‘Good job, and we’ll get you next year,’ ” he said with a grin and a laugh. “Then the next year, he beat us again.

“It’s hard for me to believe, from Turlock, Calif., a little city, that he’s on TV up there and I played against him. Like everybody in this room, everybody in this town, I’m rooting for Colin. It’s a great story, a Turlock kid in the Super Bowl.”